Multi-page documents can be easily rendered to a rendering device such as, for example, a printer. With advances in computer and printing technologies, there exist capabilities to print multi-page documents with pre-selected dividers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,097,369 to Barry et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method and apparatus for inserting tabs in a print job. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,549,300 to Motamed et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method and apparatus that configures a printer for printing ordered stock by using a template. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 7,515,295 to Kremer et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a computer program to operate a printer to insert tabs into a multipage document. Barry et al., Motamed et al., and Kremer et al., however, each fail to disclose automatically inserting a divider in a multi-file document of various file formats.
Barry et al. discloses a method where first, a position is selected within a document to insert a tab sheet. A tab sheet is then created as a rasterized tab sheet image that has a rasterized tab specific image disposed in a predetermined location on the rasterized image. The created tab image is then inserted into the document. Barry et al., however, is limited in that the method for inserting tab sheets is limited to a single document of one file and file format. Although this is not explicitly stated, the description herein continuously refers to “a document” and refers to a “document defined image space” which is logically associated with one file type.
Motamed et al., discloses a method and apparatus for tab printing where the focus is on having many tab printing options by providing options which include setting the number of positions, the text offset per tab, the tab media size, text rotation, document reading order, tray source, the tab font size, the tab font type, tab sheet location, tab text, and text color. Once these options are selected, they can be saved for repeated uses. Motamed et al. does not teach the automatic insertion of dividers as taught in the present invention.
Kremer et al. discloses a computer program that operates a printer to insert tabs into a multipage document. A graphical user display allows the user to specify a page for the tabs. The text and graphics may be entered on the tab or selected from templates for labels and style. Kremer et al. does not disclose the automatic insertion of dividers between discreet files as in the present invention.
Based on the foregoing, it is believed that a need exists for improved systems and methods for automatically printing and inserting dividers into multi-file and multi-section documents. A need also exists for printing and inserting dividers between discreet files obtained through multiple sources, as described in greater detail herein.